Defective floor pitch needs another pour

Q. My wife and I built a new house in northern Vermont in 1994. In the winter, the garage accumulates water from our vehicles along with road salt and other debris. I think that when the concrete garage floors were poured they were incorrectly sloped and do not drain properly to the outside, allowing water and dirt to puddle in the garage in spots near the adjoining house walls. There are no floor drains. Can you think of any way to alleviate this problem without tearing out and repouring the entire garage floor? A. Concrete slabs in garages should have a pitch of 3 inches from back to front. Sorry, but the only possible solution, short of tearing the floor and pouring a new one, is to cap the existing slab with new concrete. Precautions will need to be taken to thoroughly clean the existing concrete, and an additive must be added to the new concrete to make it adhere more securely to the old. The new pour will also need to be at least 4 inches thick at the back of the garage, so it can be 1 inch thick at the doors and tapered. Anything less and the thin edge is going to be too weak and will eventually erode under the traffic. If you are solely concerned about water concentrated at the joint with the walls of the house, concrete can be added in a narrow band to keep it away from the walls, where it can cause some damage.I live in a house built into the side of a mountain in South Carolina. The garage floor is steel with concrete on top. The temperature difference has caused condensation to drip on my dropped ceiling, watermarking and ruining it. What can I do to stop the heat transfer and water? There is a section over my apartment that is heated as part of the living area and does not sweat.A. The best approach is to spray closed-cell foam insulation onto the steel forms of the garage floor. Since the forms are most likely corrugated, it is the only way to ensure that the entire steel configuration will be insulated. The suspended ceiling will have to be removed to make sure that every square inch of the steel is covered.Because people are concerned about heating bills, I thought you would find this an interesting approach. A main feature in the home my wife and I just finished building is a masonry heater/pizza oven. Masonry heaters have been used throughout northern and Eastern Europe for quite some time now and are now getting attention in the United States. Unlike the traditional chimney of a fireplace, where heat travels up and out of a flue, a masonry heater is a large stone mass that is designed to radiate heat by capturing heat through smoke channels. A two-hour fire can radiate heat for 18 to 24 hours. It burns wood, and is considered green energy as most of the harmful gasses are incinerated by the high temperatures. Our masonry heater is centrally located with one wall in the living room and one wall facing the kitchen. The kitchen side has a built-in pizza oven while the living-room side has the attractive glass doors that display the fire. If used correctly, this attractive stone heater will reduce our heating costs more than 50 percent.A. Actually, masonry heaters are not that new an idea in this country. They were built and heavily advertised for a short period of time in the late 1970s, but they fell out of favor quickly because they are not practical in our latitudes. I am quite familiar with these, as my brother, who lives in Europe, has one. I have also read quite a bit about them through various journals and spoken to architects and people who have experience with them. But they are not practical in North America. They are very good in Scandinavia, northern Germany, Russia and in countries with similar latitudes, where most are found because of long nights and very little effective sunlight. We are much farther south and experience greater temperature fluctuations. A number of people had one built years ago, when they were first publicized in the U.S. media, but they were soon found to be unsuitable for our climate. When you need heat, they take a long time to make the house comfortable, and when the temperature rises, the house gets too hot and you have to open windows - a waste of energy. In northern Europe, these heaters are started in the late summer and are run all through the fall and winter until their days get longer and warmer. I hope it will work for you. Thanks for sharing your story, but this is a very expensive build that I would not recommend to anyone.I have a well-insulated 10-year-old home. I have been noticing random black spots on the walls and ceiling. Could you tell me what this is caused by? A. How big are the black spots? Are they simply like small dots or more like streaks? Are they in all rooms or just a few? Are they on exterior walls and ceilings below an attic or in other locations? A few photos would help. Sorry I can't be of more help without more details.Please tell me what we must take into account to insulate the attic effectively. Once insulated, can we put up drywall or plywood to finish it? What must we be aware of to ensure fireproofing in the attic? Also, could you tell us how to find a good carpenter? I never thought this would be that difficult.A. If your attic is ventilated by means of soffit and ridge vents, you will need to install baffles to allow a continuous airflow from the soffits to the ridge. The best way to accomplish this is to nail 1-by-2-inch wood strips to the sides of the rafters and against the roof sheathing. Install 1-inch-thick extruded polystyrene (XPS) rigid insulation under the wood strips by tacking them to the rafters; the additional insulation will hold them firmly in place. Fill the rest of the rafter bays with the appropriate thickness of unfaced fiberglass. The XPS foam will add R-5 to the R-factor of the fiberglass and protect the fiberglass from the airflow that reduces its performance. Staple 6-mil plastic to the bottom of the rafters and screw drywall to them. The drywall will give you some fire protection. If you have soffit vents as well as gable vents instead of a ridge vent, you should use the same technique to provide ventilation baffles between the rafters to a level just above the top of the fiberglass insulation that will be installed between the collar ties (if there are no collar ties, you will need to install them below the bottom of the gable vents). The drywall will be screwed to the bottom of the collar ties. If there is no soffit to ridge or gable ventilation, the safest approach is to have closed-cell polyurethane foam insulation sprayed onto the roof sheathing. Insist on closed-cell foam and don't let the insulator talk you into using the very popular open-cell foam that is heavily advertised. It has its place in insulating homes, but it should not be used against roof sheathing. The best way to find a competent contractor is to ask family members, friends and neighbors to recommend someone who has done satisfactory work that has stood the test of time and who has been prompt at taking care of any calls to make repairs to his or her work, as it is not unusual for construction work to develop problems.Is DAP 3.0 still what you recommend as the best anti-mold caulk for tub and shower areas?A. Here is the answer from one of my recent columns. A couple of years ago, I experimented with a different caulking because several of you wrote to tell me that Sikaflex-1a was turning pink or yellow. I tried DAP Kwik Seal Plus Premium Kitchen Bath Adhesive Caulk w/Microban, and reported that it seemed to be very good. It remained sparkling white and did not mildew. Since then, I have noticed that it is peeling off the wall on the long and faucet sides of the tub, whereas the Sikaflex-1a left on the opposite short side of the tub is as solidly attached to the wall as it was when I put it on years ago. The DAP is still very white while the Sikaflex-1a is slightly gray. The reason some of you had the bad experience of Sikaflex-1a turning pink or yellow is because it was subjected to moisture too soon. Sikaflex-1a needs to be allowed to air-cure for seven days before getting repeatedly wet - something not too easy to do if the tub in question needs to be used daily. So the choices are Sikaflex-1a with minor discoloration and tough adhesion or DAP's color retention but loss of adhesion. Choose your poison, but I'll stick to Sikaflex-1a. Helpful suggestion: I've noticed people have written about not being able to clean grout and keep it clean on their floors. I had the same problem and used every product I could find at tile stores, home-improvement centers and online. Finally, I found a company called Sir Grout, which cleans and color seals the grout lines. After cleaning the floors, you choose a color seal to match your existing grout or choose a new color. They will try various color seals on your floor that are stain-, water- and mold-resistant. I have had the application for two years and my floors and grout look brand new after spills, muddy feet and weekly washings. It can also be applied to tile in bathrooms and showers. Their address is sirgrout.com. I hope this helps some of your readers. bull;Thank you. This is of great help, and two years of trial in your home is compelling testimony. bull; Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. Write to him in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006, or via e-mail at henridemarne@gmavt.net.#169; 2009, United Feature Syndicate Inc.